Gaston Thierry (born 17 July 1866 in Munich, † 16 September 1904 near Mubi) was a German officer and civil servant in Togo and Cameroon.

Life

Thierry was the son of a tradesman. After attending the Gymnasium, he joined the Infantry Regiment No. 88 in 1886. In the same year, he became ''Portepee-Fähnrich'' (ensign with sword-knot) and in 1887 ''Sekondeleutnant'' (second lieutenant). In 1891 he retired from the army and became a member of the First ''See-Bataillon''. In 1894, after the suppression of the mutiny of the police force, he was temporarily ordered to Cameroon. In 1894 he was promoted to first lieutenant. He resigned on 12 September 1895 from the Marine Infantry and entered into the Grenadier Regiment of King Frederick William II (1st Silesian) No. 10. In June 1896 he was made '' à la suite'' of the regiment and ordered to serve at the Foreign Office. Thierry was first used in German-Togo, where he served as station director of

Sansanné-Mango Mango, formerly Sansanné-Mango , is a city in northern Togo. It is situated on the Oti River in the Savanes Region. The town is located near Kéran National Park and from the border with Ghana. The population is about 41,464 people (2007).. R ...

and district manager in Yendi, and was involved in the occupation of the north. He led several military expeditions against local communities, including the Kabiye in January 1898 together with Hermann Kersting and Valentin von Massow, and one against the Moba in 1899. In 1902 he was transferred to the German colonial territory in Cameroon, stationed first in Victoria and after his promotion to captain (12 September 1902) in 1903 was appointed head of the station in Yaoundé. In 1903 he accompanied Governor Jesko von Puttkamer on his trip to

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

and on this occasion was appointed first Resident of the colonial province of Adamawa on 20 September 1903.

Death and legacy

Thierry was mortally wounded in an expedition he led against Jeremia Issa and his followers in Mubi. He died succumbing from a poisoned arrow on 16th September 1904. He was buried in Garoua. A year after his death, in 1905, the case of Thierry's brutality against Africans was brought back to the spotlight as parliamentary debates on colonial affairs took place after several scandals involving officers and missionaries in German-Togo hit the headlines in the German press. The official parliamentary indulgence stipulated that Captain Thierry had shot down the father of the pupil of the Catholic mission in Lomé, after he had climbed up a tree to flee from the officer. Furthermore, the pupil reported that Thierry would shoot down local people as one would shoot game, and that his acts of cruelty were grounds for his notoriety in the entire protectorate. A species of West African lizard, ''

Chalcides thierryi ''Chalcides thierryi'', commonly known as Thierry's cylindrical skink, is a species of lizard in the family Scincidae. The species is indigenous to West Africa. Etymology The specific name, ''thierryi'', is in honor of German military officer ...

'', was named in his honor.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Thierry", p. 264).

References

Sources

*''Ergebnisse der Untersuchung über den Tod des Hauptmanns Thierry'', in: Deutsches Kolonialblatt 16 (1905), p. 161 (in German). *Manfred Maximilian Ulbrich: ''Offizier-Stammliste des Grenadier-Regiments König Friedrich Wilhelm II. (1. Schlesischen) Nr. 10 1808-1908,'' Berlin 1907, p. 499f. (in German). {{DEFAULTSORT:Thierry, Gaston Prussian Army personnel Togoland German colonial people in Kamerun 1904 deaths 1866 births